Gelact ende verguld: New Discoveries from Willem Kick’s Workshop in Amsterdam

Abstract

The name Willem Kick (1579–1647) has been known in specialized literature since the studies by Lunsingh Scheurleer and Huth and, more recently, by Baarsen, who identified him as an Amsterdam-based merchant to whom a patent was granted in 1609 for the manufacture of ‘all sorts of lacquer works’. Kick held a monopoly position as the first identifiable practitioner of this trade in Holland and the whole of Northern Europe, where the lacquer craft was just beginning to become established. Recent acquisitions by the Museum für Lackkunst have not only significantly enlarged the group of objects that can be attributed to Kick’s workshop, but also confirm the profile of his atelier as documented in archival sources. The fabrication of lacquered furniture is illustrated by a cabinet and the manufacture of tableware by a plate which relies on metal as its substrate material. It lends decisive support to the presumed attribution because Kick was granted in 1619 an additional patent for ‘lacquer work on metal’, thus paving the way toward a bright future for a specifically European lacquer technology. The plate in Münster is the sole presently known specimen of Kick’s trailblazing innovation. Other Kick plates in Uppsala and Ulm underscore the importance of lacquered and gilt tableware in his product assortment.

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